


Shallow Regret

by Achrya



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dangan Ronpa Fusion, Blood and Injury, Character Death, Explicit Language, Genderfluid Armin, M/M, Mild Gore, Nonbinary Hange Zoë, Trauma, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-20
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-16 03:25:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7250080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Achrya/pseuds/Achrya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wall Academy is supposed to be where the best and brightest gather together. It represents something different to everyone: a chance to secure himself a great life to Jean, a chance to escape his life to Armin, and answers for Eren. But the moment they cross the threshold everyone realizes that nothing is what they thought it would be. They're locked in with 17 other students with no hope of escape or rescue and forced to participate in the 'Headmaster's' twisted game of kill or be killed with freedom as the prize. </p><p>It quickly becomes clear that there is much more to Wall Academy, and more connections between the students, than any of them thought.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Building a Mystery

**Author's Note:**

> If you're looking to line up the characters here with the characters from Dangan Ronpa none of them, with the exception of Jean, really fall into the 'roles' cleanly. This is very Jean, Armin, and Eren centric so the POV's will swap between them too. Maybe Marco as well. *nervous look in Marco's direction*

Jean could scarcely breathe his mother was holding him so tight. He wanted to push her away, to maintain some semblance of dignity in front of his future peers, but at the same time it would be some time before they saw each other again. Wall Academy was a long ways from home and while she'd made the trip to drop him off it was unlikely either would be traveling the distance often. 

She wasn’t happy with him leaving home like he was but what was done was done and he could feel that she didn’t want to leave things on a bad note and, as annoyed as he was about their last fight, neither did he. 

So he endured her hug, patting her awkwardly on the back while his eyes darted around. Wall Academy loomed behind them, 7 floors high and taking up nearly the entire block, casting its shadow over everything. It was impressive: no, more than impressive it was ‘elite’. It only admitted the very best, save some lottery students, and the people who graduated from here were on to do really impressive things. Politicians, business owners, professional athletes: Wall Academy counted them all among their their alumni. 

And, in a few years, Jean would be one of them.

She pulled away and smiled shakily; her eyes were bright with unshed tears. “You don’t want to be late for orientation. Call me once you’re settled, okay?” He nodded then frowned when she reached up to put a hand to his cheek. “Be good Jeanbo.” 

He nodded. “Of course  mère .”  

She frowned for a moment then nodded and stepped back. He scooped up his bags; most of his stuff had already been sent ahead and was probably in boxes in his assigned dorm room so, thankfully, he hadn’t had to carry much. This place really did think of and take care of everything. 

He was pulled into another crushing hug, made to promise he really would call and would call often, and then finally she all but ran to the rental car. He watched her go, an ache he couldn’t put a name to in his chest, then turned on his heel to look up at the school once again. His eyes took in the heavy stone facade of the building that spiraled up into a bell tower at the very top. There was a metal crest up there as well with the images of three women, one in profile facing left, one in profile facing right, and one facing forward, engraved in the metal. 

The three great saints, Maria, Sina, and Rose. Jean wasn’t into religious stuff, it had always made him feel very...uneasy, but it was basically impossible to avoid seeing them everywhere and on everything so there was no surprise that their image was on the school. 

He looked away, well aware that he was waste time and couldn’t afford to do so, not here, and swallowed. He walked to the double doors, tall and made of shining glass, propped open as if in welcome. Which it was, really. First day of the new year and all. He could see the front hallway, wide and brightly lit with high ceilings, and his heart jumped into his throat. 

This was it, the thing he’d been working towards for years and had earned. This was, cliche as it sounded, the first day of the rest of his life. 

Things were going to be good here. Really good. 

He could feel it. 

\---

Jean grunted as he woke up then, realizing he was facedown in a puddle what he hoped to Sina was his own drool, groaned. There was a pounding behind his eyes and his mouth was fuzzy and gross tasting. He squinted then sat up, pain racing up his spine as he straightened up. He was...where was he?

There were desks all around him, identical to the one he was sitting at, a chalkboard at the front of the room covered in neat and even print, a bunch of dented metal storage lockers, some with their doors hanging open and their contents (art supplies it looked like) spilled out over the floor, a handful of motivational posters on the sickly yellow wall (‘Life is a Battlefield’ ‘Hunt or be Hunted’ ‘Control your fate!’)

A classroom?

Jean sat up straighter, eyes widening at the sight of what looked like security cameras in the corners of the room, tiny red lights blinking in the corner as they swept back and forth. He turned to the side and, stomach sinking, realized there were metal plates on what he assumed were the windows. He jumped up and, stepping over his school bag, lurched towards the huge slabs of metal, feeling along the edges to find them a few inches thick with no gaps to work at and the huge bolts holding them in place too tight to move by hand. 

He backed away and looked around the room again. 

It was clearly a classroom but what the fuck kind of classroom was this? How had he gotten here? 

The last thing he could remembered, when he really focused and thought back, was his mother hugging him goodbye then stepping into Wall Academy and...nothing. Well, waking up in this room obviously but no dizzy feeling or confusion or anything like that. From A to B with no idea how he’d gotten here. Wherever here was. 

Or...was this...no. There was no way this was Wall. Not this gloomy, dark, horror show of a classroom. He half expected a body to fall out of one of the storage cabinets. This couldn’t be Wall Academy. But, since it wasn’t, that meant he’d what, been kidnapped? Who the fuck would kidnap him? And how? Why? 

He needed answers, now, and that meant getting out of this room. The door was propped open so it didn’t look like there was anything forcing him to stay in here so...okay. He would just leave. Right. 

Jean grabbed his school bag but, before he could head for the door and the dim hallway he could see through it, a piece of paper floated from on top of his bag to the floor. He could see words written in crayon, wobbly and uneven, and he bent for it without thinking. 

In the corner was a crude picture that...sort of resembled Wall Academy and, next to that, the words ‘ **Welcome to School!’** in vivid red. Under that, in black, it read ‘ **A new semester has begun! Since your starting new lives, this school will be your new world. Gather in the gym at 8 for the welcoming ceremony.’**

Jean blinked. Then blinked again. He turned the paper over and frowned when he was a glossy image of the academy and the 3 Saints Crest printed there. 

He didn’t want to think about what the meant and instead glanced up at the clock above the chalkboard. 7:47. That gave him, hopefully, enough time to find the gym and...wait. Was he actually going to the gym? What if there was someone there who wanted to kill him or something?

Then again why leave him a classroom, seemingly free from harm, only to kill him later? That wasn’t logical. 

And maybe there were others who’d be in the gym. If so it would be better to see about them, hear their experience so far, assess them for usefulness and then they could come up with a plan to...to-

He shook his head, train of thought derailing. What was he thinking?

Well, either way, he needed to find the gym. 

The hallway was bathed in eerie pinkish purple light and yet still somehow dark and gloomy. The checkerboard patterned floor seemed to stretch out forever, eventually becoming one with the shadows. Just looking at it made his stomach twist uncomfortably. 

The gym was blessedly easy to to find, once he’d gone the right way. He decided to go left first but found only a dead end. He backtracked, past where he’d come and then further to the right, and ended up going past a few other open classrooms, all more or less the same as the one he’d just left and very empty. At the end of the hallway there was a set of double doors with a plaque labeled ‘Gymnasium’ above them. He pushed them open and bright light came streaming out. 

There were voices, a lot of them, talking vast and overlapping but silence fell abruptly when the doors opened and all eyes were on him. There were teenagers, about twenty of them, all around his age standing around the large open area and none of them looked happy. Beyond that they didn’t seem to have much in common; some were in casual clothes, some in gym clothes, and some were in uniforms (but not the same uniform), and they ranged in size and shape. 

Jean, in the same slacks, button up, tie, and blazer he’d been wearing when he arrived at the school (so it probably hadn’t been that long since he got here, right?) didn’t look out of place among the eclectic group. 

There was a beat of silence and Jean was tempted to step back out the way he came, unnerved by all the eyes on him. 

The door closed behind him with a dull thud; Jean saw a few of the others flinch.

“Another one.” One of the boys, a bit taller than Jean with dark black hair pulled back into a bun, a spray of freckles over his face, and wearing a black tracksuit jacket over black shorts, waved at him. He was smiling but Jean couldn’t imagine what he had to smile about. “Woke up in a classroom?” 

Jean nodded slowly, scanning the crowd. He didn’t see anyone he knew and, honestly, he wasn’t sure what he’d expected on that front. Of course he didn’t know anyone here, this was his first day. 

“Same with us.” The boy said frowning thoughtfully. “With you and Mikasa’s missing brother that makes nineteen. Same number of seats here.” He pointed at the folding chairs arranged in front of the stage at the front of the room. “

Missing brother? 

“But for what?” This came from a small blond girl, flanked by two much larger boys, in jeans and a gray hoodie with a jacket on top. “Who kidnaps nineteen kids, throws them in classrooms, and then tells them to meet up for a 'welcoming ceremony'?” 

“Maybe it’s a trust exercise or...some kind of psychological evaluation.” An excited look teen with reddish-brown hair pulled back in a haphazard ponytail and wearing large round framed glasses suggested. “Maybe the failures will be horrifically tortured or worse, expelled!” 

One of the girls started stomping towards him, hands curled into fists and gray eyes furious. She had long black hair, hanging loose around her shoulders, and a red scarf draped around her. She was pretty, even with all the clear anger on her face, and her yellow sundress showed off insanely muscular arms. Jean all but threw himself out of her way, knowing instinctively he did not want to be in between her and whatever it was she was after.

Not just because she looked mad enough to kill and seemed to have the body to do it, but there was something else. A prickling on the back of his neck that made his hair stand on end. 

“That’s it!” She said as she stormed past him to reach for the doors. “I’m not going to wait anymore. It’s already 8!” 

Indeed a look up showed a giant clock hanging above the stage showing it to be 8 on the dot. 

A petite blond in a white pleated skirt, blue leggings, and a blue hooded sweatshirt took a step then stopped, looking stricken. “Wait, I don’t think we should le-”

Whatever was going to be said was lost as the gym doors opened once again. The gray-eyed girl, who’d been about the grab the handles, jumped back to avoid them as they swung inwards, then gasped. 

“Eren!” 

She flung herself forward, practically knocking over the brown haired boy now standing in the doorway. Jean watched, eyebrow going up as the two embraced. Dating, maybe? If so the guy was way out of his league. Absurdly so. 

“Oh.” One of the others, this one brown skinned, green eyed, and very tall, sounded bewildered. “This is...your brother?” 

Jean looked again. Messy brown hair, bright-blue green eyes, tanned skin compared to her smooth amber, and a face that was all sharp angry angles. Jean didn’t see the resemblance. But the girl nodded, taking her ‘brother’ by the hand and dragging him deeper into the gym. Relief was written all over her face. 

“Finally!” A cheerful voice boomed, seemingly to come from all around them at once. It wasn’t obviously male or female but there was a touch of whining static to the words. “Welcome students to your orientation! I am your headmaster!”

The podium on the stage suddenly exploded in a haze of thick smoke and what looked like confetti as an ear achingly loud fanfare played. Jean was pretty sure he felt the ground shake from the sheer volume of it. 

When the smoke cleared there was what looked like a stuffed bear, large and potbellied. It was dual-colored, silvery white on one side and blue on the other, with one black button eyes and another glowing red one that seemed shaped almost like a wing. 

Jean's mouth dropped open. What the hell?

“You can call me King.” The bear declared. 

As strange as everything else was, from the barred windows to the school itself to not being able to remember how he got there, a talking bear that seemed to be able to stand and move around under it’s own power ranked at the top. 

Judging by the incredulous looks on the others in the room Jean wasn’t alone in that sentiment. 

“I have hand selected you for the latest, and greatest, class Wall has ever seen. This school will be your home for the rest of your lives." 


	2. Bombs Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren is very confused, very angry, and ready to cut a bear for threatening his sister.

“What did you say?” Someone demanded.

The bear that had appeared on the stage in a flurry of smoke and rainbow confetti had a manic grin on its face and the bark of laughter it let out was loud and grating. It put its front paws on the edge of the podium it was standing on and slowly looked around the gym, seemingly taking them all in.

“I said, Ms. Leonhart, that this wonderful educational facility is where you all will be living, indefinitely.”

Eren could feel the emotion in the room, crackling in the air like electricity. For a moment no one said anything and then there was shouting and gesturing and he was pretty sure he heard someone burst into tears but there were so many of them, all standing around the stage, that it was hard to track who was doing what. All he knew was that Mikasa was at his side, holding his hand, and glowering up at the bear whose mouth had opened in a wide grin to show off rows of sharp looking teeth.

A bear who claimed to be their headmaster which was impossible. Wasn’t it? Eren knew the headmaster and last he’d checked that guy was not a stuffed bear.

Admittedly it had been a while but that was something he was certain he would have noticed.

Well, he knew that and that he’d woken up in some classroom and come to the gym only to have some sort of...magic robot bear jump out of the stage and tell them they’d be staying here forever. Which wasn’t going to happen and if Mikasa hadn’t had such a vice like grip on his hand he would have already punted the little fucker and demanded an explanation for why every window he’d seen had metal plates over them. Including, if what he saw was anything to go by, the huge ones at the top of the bleachers in the very room they were in.

He hadn’t seen any doors but he was willing to guess those would be sealed too. He’d been scared at first, mind unwillingly flashing back to what had happened 7 years ago with the Ackerman’s, but now he was just pissed.

He wasn’t letting anyone keep him or especially Mikasa anywhere against his will and if he had to smash some to pieces bear to get out of here he would do it.

“Oh god!” The freckled boy close to them muttered. “I had a dream that started this way once and then tentacles...actually, nevermind.”

“Quiet quiet!  Your headmaster demands quiet!” The bear hopped from the podium and strode forward. Everyone scrambled back, parting to create a sort of path for the thing to stride past them, shocked silence descending once again. “I’m glad to see my little soldiers know how to obey-”

“Soldiers?” A short guy, dark haired with steely eyes behind black framed glasses, repeated. “What is that supposed to mean? Where are we? What is-”

“Hey, pay a little respect to your headmaster.” The bear said as it pivoted on one paw to point another paw up at the teen. “I’m in charge here so you'd better fall in line.”

The dark haired boy snorted. “You’re a stuffed bear.”

King’s wing shaped eye glinted an unsettling red. “I am much, much more than that. But, enough about me, let’s talk about all of you, my bright little ducklings, and your permanent future here.”

“You can’t be serious.” This came from blond who stood taller than the rest and, with his neat hair and tidy uniform, had a certain air of authority to him. “What about our lives? Our families? What about food?

“Ah, well, good news. The budget here is near limitless so everything you need, or want, will be provided for you.” King continued to pace back and forth in front of them, sounding incredibly delighted. The urge to kick its face in continued to rise.

“Don’t.” Mikasa said softly. “We need to hear what it has to say.”

“So those metal plates,” Another boy, this one dressed a little nicer than everyone else with a sandy brown undercut, said. “Are really there to keep us in.”

“That’s right!” The bear giggled; it’s pacing turned to gleeful skipping. “You are stuck here in Wall. Kick and scream all you want, no one can hear you and no one is coming.”

The other students looked pale and Eren could see a few shaking their heads in disbelief. Mikasa gripped his hand tighter and he knew she was thinking the same thing he was: there was no one out there to come for them.

“That’s impossible!” Another smaller boy, this one with a shaved head and panicked look on his face. “My family would never just abandon me. They’ll-”

“Wrong Mr. Singer!” King’s voice took on a singsong note. “Trust me when I say I am not lying. There is no rescue coming from outside of Wall Academy.”

The blond from before spoke again, frowning. “You’ll have to excuse us if the idea of staying here for the rest of our natural lives doesn’t sound that great.”

“Natural lives. That’s interesting phrasing Mr. Smith.” The bear bounced their way back to the stage and, with surprising ease, climbed back up. “There is actually one teeny tiny loophole if you wish to escape.”

“And? What is it?” Undercut asked, amber eyes narrowing.

“I’m glad you asked Mr. Kirschstein.” And indeed King sounded even more excited and went as far as to clasp it’s paws together. “The answer is good old fashioned murder.”

A confused murmur went through the group but if Kng noticed it didn’t show. The bear seemed to be on a roll, twirling around in a circle and giggling again.

“That’s right students. Any one of you who manages to kill one of your peers and gets away with it gets to walk out of here no questions asked. I don’t care how you do it; stab them, gut them, smother, strangle, incinerate, mutilate, drain them dry, drown them-”

Eren swallowed, tuning out the bear’s rhythmic listing of murder techniques. He felt much too warm all of a sudden and he was sure that if looked away from King it would be to find everyone looking at him, through him, somehow aware of the blood on his hands. Their hands.

Mikasa squeezed his hand again.

“I don’t care how you do it as long as you do it. The best of the best, the hope of all of us, reduced to selfish wholesale slaughter.” King sighed dreamily. “Can you imagine anything better?”

“But why?” Another small blond, this one in a blue hoodie, asked. Eren looked over at them then stopped and looked again; their eyes were a stormy blue. It reminded him of the ocean during a storm. “What is the point in making us kill each other?”

“Yeah.” Someone shouted; Eren was too busy watching the blond to notice who. “If you think we’re just going to kill each other on the say so of some stuffed toy you’re out of your mind.”

King’s eyes flared with red light again. “Is that how you talk to your principal? And what I think doesn’t matter because the reality of the situation is that this little school is now. Your. Entire. World and the only way out is to get away with murder.”

“That’s enough of your shit.” The short gray-eyed teen spat, face twisting up with rage. “You keep this up and you might be victim number one.”

“Is that right short stack?” King snorted dismissively. “What do you plan to do, glare at me?”

The other boy moved with speed Eren wouldn’t have thought possible, surging forward from where he was standing to grab the bear and heft it up so there were eye to eye. In his other hand was a switchblade, sharp edge catching the bright overhead lights and gleaming. King’s arms started flailing, paws flapping.

“What I’m going to do is cut you open and find out where all the noise is coming from.” Gray eyes became darkened slits. “And then I’ll find the asshole pulling the strings and do the same to them.”

“School rules prohibit any harm coming to the headmaster.” King’s shouted then, lips spreading into that razor toothed grin again, his eye started flashing. Instead of words a loud pulsing wail started to emit from the bear, waxing and waning in time with the flashing of it’s eyes.

“Toss it!” Blue hoodie shouted, eyes comically wide.

The knife wielding teen didn’t hesitate to listen and tossed the wailing bear away from them. It tumbled end over in as it arced up towards the top of the bleachers and, just as it started to descend, it exploded. The noise was deafening as a wave of force rocked the room. Eren could feel the heat from the explosion licking his skin even though the bear was at least ten feet above them and decently far away. Pieces went flying, bits of fur, a button eye, gears and wires, in all directions to rain down on them.

Eren decided it was for the best that his temper hadn't gotten the better of him. The gray-eyed teen looked startled for a moment and then his face went completely blank.

“This is really happening, isn't it?” The girl who asked was pale and her expression was pinched.

Eren was leaning towards yes. He didn't think anyone would go through all of this to prank them. Especially not with what seemed to be a very real bomb. He'd felt the force of it and there was no doubt in his mind it would have done damage up close.

But the bear was gone now, right?

“Of course it is Ms. Blouse.” The cheerful static touched voice answered. They turned back to the stage like a bunch of marionettes being controlled; another bear was sitting on the podium, legs swinging back and forth. “Consider that your one and only verbal warning. Next time someone breaks the rules I won't be kind enough to give one.”

Strained silence was the only response, something that seemed to suit the bear just fine. “And, with that, I'll leave you to introduce yourselves, figure out who was who, and start your plots.”

As the bear spoke the podium started to descend into the stage. There was no noise to accompany it aside from the bear’s grating laughter. The last thing Eren saw was a silver white paw waving at them and then nothing.

The large blond who’d spoken moved to the stage and, after peering at it for a second, shook his head. “It's seamless. I don't think there's a way to follow.”

A girl with auburn hair and wide dark eyes made a noise of alarm. “Why would we want to? Did you not see that thing blow up?”

“I saw it.” He frowned then lifted his shoulders up into a shrug. “Well, for now, we should introduce ourselves-”

“I don't want to do anything that thing says we should.” Undercut grumbled miserably.

“Who asked you rich boy?” The gray-eyed boy sneered. Undercut jumped then, after mouthing what looked like ‘rich boy’ silently, scowled.

“If you want to listen to the bear telling you to kill people then by all means-”

“I mean,” The boy with the shaved head spoke up. “You guys can’t believe that. It’s absurd. There is no way this is real.”

Eren snorted but it was undercut who answered, arms crossed over his chest. “That bomb felt pretty real but what the situation really is doesn’t matter. All that matters is whether or not someone here believes it enough to kill.”

Just about everyone looked like they’d been smacked in the face with something heavy, shocked and confused. And then scared and anxious, sneaking furtive looks at each other and shuffling their feet as they tried to subtly put space between them and their neighbors. Eren could read the room and what he saw was fear from nearly everyone. Only freckled short-shorts boy, short and angry, and undercut looked unaffected. Undercut, in fact, looked bored. 

Undercut, Eren decided, was an asshole. The way he was staring down his nose and saying things like he felt like they should have been obvious and anyone who didn’t see it was stupid reminded him of some of the self-important jerks his father had known. The sort of people who looked down on children or former waitresses and assumed that everything they had to say would go right over their head.

“If we're stuck here knowing who we're stuck with just makes sense.” The gray-eyed teen spoke before anyone else could. “Trying to figure out who might be willing to kill someone

The large blond nodded. “Yes, exactly. Thank you.”

The two exchanged looks, the smaller of them with a furrowed brow and then a stiff nod. The blond stepped forward again, stopping when he was basically in the center of their little group; Eren got the sense he was used to being in control and listened to without question.

“I'm Erwin Smith. I'm a third year but this was supposed to be my first year at Wall Academy.”

Erwin glanced over at the gray-eyed teen who rolled his eyes. "Levi Ackerman. Second year, first here."

He felt Mikasa stiffen at his side but when he turned to look at here he was met with a terse head shake. Now wasn't the time and, even if it were, they'd long since given up on tracking down other Ackermans who were actually related to her. 

"Mikasa and Eren Jaeger. First years." She spoke for both of them and, under her toneless voice, he could hear what she didn't need words to say: that they were in this together, family, and everyone else was 'other'. That was the way it had been for a decade and that was the way it was staying, creepy bear or no. 


	3. The Key To Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Using male (he/him/his) pronouns for Armin here but we will see (she/her/hers) and (They/Them/Theirs) used in other chapters, depending on how Armin is feeling.

 

The introductions stalled for a moment when someone realizing their cell phone was missing prompted everyone else to realize the same. A quick search by those who had bags with them found that no one had any kind of electronics still with them at all. It made sense to Armin, letting them keep that stuff just gave them a way to call for help and the headmaster wasn’t going to want something like that. 

It also made him think that whoever was controlling that bear had to have some help. Knocking out nineteen students, emptying the school, and then moving them all to classrooms and searching all of their belongings before they woke back up? That was a big task for just one person? Impossible really. 

No, they had to have help.

They moved over to the bleachers after that, though a large part of the group ended up staying on their feet. Armin could tell a lot of the others were nervous, bouncing around in place and shuffling around, seemingly incapable of sitting down for any length of time. A few of the bigger teens trooped up to the metal sheets over the bleacher windows to try undoing the bolts and, in the case of one tall freckle faced girl, flat out punching and kicking it. 

Armin quietly made note of everyone and their reactions, scribbling in the small notebook he’d found in the front pocket of his backpack. He didn’t know that it would be useful but he felt like it might. Better to know what to expect from people, and have a record of how they reacted under stress, than to not have it. He also made a note of his theory that the Headmaster must have some help. 

He found he felt calmer when he was observing everyone and thinking through the situation logically. It made things less overwhelming. 

Other than the Jaeger siblings, a hard-eyed pair who didn’t seem inclined to move away from each other, it didn’t seem that anyone knew anyone else. The only connection Armin could find was that they, while being of various ages and in different years, were all about to start their first year at Wall and had blacked out right after arriving at the school. 

They were a sort of ‘Freshman class’, after a fashion, which explained why no one seemed to be in the proper uniform. 

Erwin was the only third year students but there was Hanji Zoe, Reiner Braun, Franz Kefka, Bertholdt Hoover, Hitch Dreyse and Marco Bott. The rest were first year students: Connie Springer, Sasha Blouse, Ymir (just Ymir, no last name was offered), Annie Leonhart, Hannah Diamant, Marlo Sand, Jean Kirschstein, Historia Reiss-

“Reiss?” A curious Hanji broke in. “As in Reiss Financials and Senator Reiss who is supposed to be running for president next year?” 

Historia’s cheeks went pink and she ducked her head. “Y-Yes. Senator Reiss is my father.” 

Armin was familiar with the Reiss family but then everyone was probably familiar with them. They owned everything or pretty damn close to it. There was rich and powerful and then there was the Reiss family. It made sense that a child of that family would go to Wall Academy, considering it’s reputation, but he wouldn’t have made the connection on his own. He hadn’t been aware that Senator Reiss had a daughter aside from the one who’d tragically died in a car accident a few years ago. 

Hanji whistled then leaned close, eyebrows waggling. “So you’re loaded?” 

“Oh! Um.” Historia’s fingers threaded together as her eyes darted around anxiously. “I suppose? Not that it will do much good here.” 

Hanji inclined their head to the side. “Well yeah but-” 

“What about you?” Ymir asked, loud enough to drown out whatever else Hanji was saying. It took Armin a second to realize the taller girl’s piercing eyes were focused on him. And, the longer he didn’t say anything, the more attention was turning his way. 

He forced a smile and resisted the urge to shrink in on himself. This was okay. Part of the reason he’d come to Wall Academy was a chance to start over and really be himself no matter how other people acted. Things are his last school had been...hard for him, and his grandfather by proxy, but he wasn’t going to let it be like that anymore. 

“I'm Armin Arlert. I’m a first year.” 

“Armin?” Connie, who’d found a spot next to Sasha and was splitting a granola bar with the girl, stopped chewing to speak. “Isn’t that a boy’s name.” 

Armin’s fingers twisted in the hem of his skirt. “Yes.” 

Connie blinked. Armin could feel a few of the others giving him another once over with their eyes, making their own judgements about him. He was used to that, though it never became more comfortable or easier to endure. At his last school it hadn’t mattered how he dressed or spoke or acted, other kids had made fun of him and his teachers had told him to ‘act more like a boy’. His parents had been the same, insisting he needed to toughen up and stop acting so ‘girly’ if he didn’t want to be bullied anymore. 

Being accepted to Wall Academy and being able to spend the summer with his grandfather, who genuinely wanted nothing more than for Armin to be happy and didn’t care if it was as a boy in a skirt, a girl in a suit, or neither, was helping him set all of that aside. 

Or he’d hoped it would anyway. Being kidnapped and trapped in the school didn’t exactly fit his grand ‘be true to himself no matter what’ plans, did it? But, if he was looking on the upside, surely all of that was more pressing than picking on each other. 

“That’s everyone isn’t it?” Erwin asked, looking around of the group pointedly. “Maybe we should start looking around next? Getting a lay of the land and checking to see if there are any gaps in security we can utilize would be useful.” 

That made sense to Armin, in so far as anything was making sense since he’d woken up in a dark classroom with no idea how he’d gotten there. It seemed the others agreed, or at least didn’t disagree strongly enough to make it known. 

Erwin frowned thoughtfully. “Let’s split into groups then. We’ll cover ground faster; I didn’t see a lot when I was coming here but if this is really Wall Academy then we have a lot to look at.” 

“I think I’ll go alone.” Jean spoke up. He’d been silent since he’d given them his name, hovering on the edge of the group and looking very disinterested, but Armin had noticed he seemed to be listening to everything and watching them all with sharp, careful eyes. He got the feeling Jean wasn’t a person who missed much. 

“Alone?” Erwin repeated. “Why?” 

Jean shrugged and stepped away from the group, eyes on the entrance. “It seems to me it is much safer to go alone then grouping up with people who might want to kill me, but the rest of you can do what you want.”

The effect was similar to when Jean had pointed out someone among them might actually be taking this seriously and planning to kill someone. Faces went pale and gazes became questioning and suspicious. It wasn’t, Armin didn’t think, that anyone had forgotten the situation in the time it had taken to learn everyone’s names, but that it was easy to put it out of their minds because it just seemed so...unbelievable. Right up until they were reminded that, at the very least, one among them wasn’t as inclined to just set it aside. 

“I’m sure no one-” Marco, who was standing closest to Jean, started.

“But you don’t know.” Jean interrupted as he walked past the taller teen without sparing him a glance. “None of you know if one of us is already planning a murder. Assuming otherwise is suicidal.” 

Marco reached for Jean, catching him by the elbow and halting his progress. “Hey. Talking like that isn’t helping things.” Jean frowned at him then down at his hand before yanking himself free. 

“Maybe it will help the rest of you actually think about what’s going on here.” 

No one said anything or made any further attempts to stop him as he headed for, and out of, the gym’s double doors. But, once the doors were shut after him, it seemed like everyone was talking at once. 

“He’s right isn’t he?” 

“Do you think someone here would-”

“It’s not like we know each other!” 

“He seems like he’d kill someone.” 

“Asshole.” 

“Maybe we should keep to ourselves.”

“Everyone, calm down!” Erwin said, loud enough to be heard above the burst of noise. Much to Armin’s surprise quiet did follow and all eyes turned back to Erwin. Who also looked startled at his success for a moment then, exhaling, smiled. “This is very stressful for all of us but we can’t start splitting apart an hour into whatever is going on and suspecting each other. That bear is the problem, not each other.” 

“Right!” Hanji piped up, stepping forward to stand next to Erwin. “So let’s be calm and search this place over. Even if we don’t find a way out maybe we’ll find a computer, a phone, or some other way to contact the outside world.” 

The group did seem slightly more reassured after that so, after quick thinking for Erwin, they were split into groups of three; they left the gym together and began splintering off into rooms or down hallways as they walked. There were stairwells leading up but they all had gates down in front of them and, judging by the way some of the bigger boys were failing to budge them, they weren’t moving anytime soon.

It seemed they were confined to the first floor.

Armin ended up with Mikasa and Eren and they were one of the last groups to splinter off, entering what seemed to be a cafeteria. It was big and full of tables of various shapes and sizes; Armin wouldn’t have been surprised to find that at least two hundred students could fit at a time. Everything was clean and smelled faintly of bleach and lemons. There were doors along two of the walls but the ones that Armin assumed would go to the outside, based on them being on the wall furthest from the entrance, turned out to be welded shut and the handles looped with thick chains and excessive amounts of padlocks. 

Eren, who’d walked over to investigated the doors with him, kicked on in irritation. The rattling of chains and metal colliding with metal echoed in the large room. 

They turned to follow Mikasa, who’d gone to investigate the other two doors. She stepped through one, back into the main area, just as they reached the door. Their ‘headmaster’, King, stepped out just behind her. 

Armin’s steps slowed, eyes darting down to the manically grinning bear in alarm. 

“It’s some kind of student store.” Mikasa said as she crossed the distance to them. “School supplies, uniforms, personal items, and things like that. When I touched something *he* popped out to tell me the store would be open during normal cafeteria hours.” 

“That’s right!” King added, one paw on his hip and another extended in an almost comical scolding gesture. “You kids are lucky I’m letting you wander around so close to lights out.” 

Lights out? Armin glanced up at the clock on the wall; it was creeping up on 9:15 already. The past hour had been both the shortest and longest in all his life. 

Eren glared at the bear then, turning on his heel, headed for the door they hadn’t gone through yet. Armin followed, shooting glances back at King’s smiling face the whole time. 

On the other side of the door was a kitchen and a well stocked one at that. The crisper was full of fresh fruits and vegetables, the refrigerator stocked with dairy products, meat, fish, and just about anything else anyone could need, the pantry and freezer were packed-Armin noticed more than a few different brands of his favorite flavor of ice cream- and the kitchen itself seemed state of the art. Multiple ranges, ovens, and microwaves, shelves full of appliances, a more pots and pans than he’d seen in some store displays, and more. 

Eren picked up an apple on his way out of the crisper then shrugged at his sister’s incredulous look. “What, we’re supposed to not eat? Might as well enjoy it before it goes bad or we run out and start fighting over it.” 

“That won’t be a problem.” King proclaimed from where he was standing just inside of the kitchen. “Everything is replenished at the end of the week.” 

Armin considered that, only listening with half an ear as Eren told the bear to get lost. If King was telling the truth then that meant that, for starters, he really must have been working with someone. To get this volume of food in took money and manpower, didn’t it? 

But, more than that it meant-

“You’re smiling.” Armin blinked out of his thoughts to find Mikasa watching him with open curiosity. He felt his cheeks heat up; he wasn’t used to people paying attention to him unless it was to mock him but she didn’t look interested in that. “You figured something out.”

“O-oh. I just...I mean maybe it’s nothing? I’m not sure, really.” 

Eren levered himself up onto one of the counters then shrugged. “Might as well tell it anyway. You look smart so I bet it’s something if you were smiling in the middle of all this.” 

He looked smart? And they wanted to hear what he had to say? Really? 

“Uhm. Well.” He rubbed the back of his neck anxiously. “I was thinking King, whoever King really is, must have help. I mean, sure moving someone like me would be easy but what about Reiner or Erwin or Bertholdt? That would be a lot of dead weight for just one person. And clearing out the whole school too? Plus getting all this food in here, if that’s the truth.” 

Mikasa glanced over at Eren who shrugged again before nodding. “That makes sense.” 

“And,” Armin continued, feeling less hesitant now. “Don’t you think that if...I mean if there is a way for food to get in here then-”

“There must be a way to get out.” Eren finished his thought, focus now on the apple in his hand. “We just need to find it.”

Armin nodded. “Yeah! If we can figure out what day the food comes in maybe we can watch to see who brings it and then follow them.” 

“That’s-” 

“Hey!” Connie burst into the kitchen, throwing the doors open with enough force to make them slam against the walls and for the sound to echo all around them. Armin flinched, scrambling away before he could stop himself. “We found the dorms! You need to come see this.” 

 

\----

 

The Headmaster sat in front of the many screens, each flickering between cameras showing different parts of the school, and smiled at the scene in the kitchen. 

It was good to see that Armin was just as sharp as they remembered. It would make the game so much more interesting. 

But this one, they thought as they looked at the screen showing the one student who’d decided to go it alone, needed a lesson in teamwork. But not tonight.

They leaned forward and hit the button that would broadcast their modulated voice across the school. 

“Students, lights out is normally at ten pm but tonight you will turn in early to get settled. I have left gifts for all of you in your designated rooms, I hope you find them useful and enjoyable. Be advised, any student caught sleeping somewhere other than a dorm room will be punished. Harshly. This is your only warning.” 

They took their finger off the button and sat back to watch, hand stroking over the soft fur of one of their King dolls. 

 

\---

It was Sasha, Connie, and Marco who had found the dorms. One long hallway, doors evenly placed on each side, each labeled with not just a name but a picture of the occupant. Armin stared up at the framed picture of himself, smiling brightly and wearing the exact hoodie he was already wearing, hung on his door, unable to really grasp how it could exist. 

Also confusing was that when he stepped into the room it looked like...well, it looked like somewhere he would stay. 

The walls were a soft muted blue, the desk had a collection of notebooks stacked in one corner, and against the wall there was a tall bookshelf so loaded with books the shelves were sagging in the middle. There was a low square shaped table in the center of the room, surrounded by plush looking pillows. In the far left corner there was a bed, full sized, with cream colored linens and a matching comforter folded up at the bottom. 

On top of the comforter were a jewelry box, made of a deep red wood with  **_A.A._ ** engraved on the lid, a single key hanging from a keychain, and what looked like a cell phone. He picked up the phone first and, holding his breath in spite of knowing there was no way the headmaster had gone through so much trouble only to leave him a phone, turned it on. 

It chimed cheerfully then the ‘Sina, Maria, and Rose’ crest lit up the back screen with the words ‘Wall Academy Student Notebook’ in blue underneath. That faded after a moment to show a homepage of sorts. His name and picture, the same one that was on his door, were in one corner. Under his name were spots for his age (16), year (first) and gender (blank). To the right of that were clickable links. 

Map. Classmates. Evidence. Camera. 

Strange. He set it aside to look at again then picked up the key. It was plain looking but, when he looked at the keychain, he saw it had ‘A.A. Dorm’ printed on it. Ah, the key to his dorm room then. That he slipped into the front pocket of his hoodie. Next came the box.

It wasn’t very big or tall, about pencil case sized. The wood was smooth and glossy under his finger tips and, when he flipped open the lid, soft music he didn’t recognize spilled out. Inside were four necklaces, all resting straight and snug against black velvet. 

The first three were near identical; silver chains with single stone pendants on them: One clear, one red, and one blue-ish green. The fourth necklace however was a worn leather cord that was threaded through an old rusted key. He brushed his fingers over the key and found it cool to the touch. 

What kind of weird ‘gifts’ were these? 

“Hey?” He looked up to see Marco poking his head into his room. “Erwin wants us all out in the hallway to talk about what we saw.” 

“Oh. Okay.” Armin nodded as set the box aside. “Yeah, here I come.” 


End file.
